Impacts of Intercropped Maize Ecological Shading on Tea Foliar and Functional Components, Insect Pest Diversity and Soil Microbes

Abstract

Ecological shading fueled by maize intercropping in tea plantations can improve tea quality and flavor, and efficiently control the population occurrence of main insect pests. In this study, tea plants were intercropped with maize in two planting directions from east to west (i.e., south shading (SS)) and from north to south (i.e., east shading (ES) and west shading (WS)) to form ecological shading, and the effects on tea quality, and the population occurrence and community diversity of insect pests and soil microbes were studied. When compared with the non-shading control, the tea foliar nutrition contents of free fatty acids have been significantly affected by the ecological shading. SS, ES, and WS all significantly increased the foliar content of theanine and caffeine and the catechin quality index in the leaves of tea plants, simultaneously significantly reducing the foliar content of total polyphenols and the phenol/ammonia ratio. Moreover, ES and WS both significantly reduced the population occurrences of Empoasca onukii and Trialeurodes vaporariorum. Ecological shading significantly affected the composition of soil microbial communities in tea plantations, in which WS significantly reduced the diversity of soil microorganisms.

Pea-Tea Intercropping Improves Tea Quality through Regulating Amino Acid Metabolism and Flavonoid Biosynthesis

“…For herbaceous plants, aromatic plants, such as Cassia tora and Leonurus artemisia could obviously reduce the population levels of leafhoppers ( Empoasca onukii Matsuda) [ 7 ]. Maize ( Zea mays ) could provide shade for tea plants, improve tea quality, and change soil microorganism diversity [ 8 ]. Nevertheless, leguminous plants are the most popular intercropping plants used in tea gardens.…”

Growth and yield of maize in response to reduced fertilizer application and its impacts on population dynamics and community biodiversity of insects and soil microbes

“…From the 4th August to harvest of maize in 2020 and 2021, the insect surveys (including insect pests and natural enemy insects, and the key herbivorous insect of Asian corn borers (Ostrinia furnacalis) locally) on maize plants were conducted and counted every ten days to investigate 30 maize plants in each plot of each replicate for the fertilizer application treatments. The community indexes were calculated, including the Shannon-Wiener index (H), the Pielou evenness index (E), the Margalef richness index (D), and the Simpson dominance index (C) based on the species and numbers of surveyed insects (Zou et al, 2022). The formulas were as follows:…”

Intercropping Cover Crops for a Vital Ecosystem Service: A Review of the Biocontrol of Insect Pests in Tea Agroecosystems

“…Intercropping ground cover promotes an essential ecosystem service, i.e., biological control, where pest density decreases with augmented natural enemies [ 43 , 61 ]. The enhanced predator abundance in intercropped tea plantations can effectively improve the anti-interference capability of the whole tea plantation ecological system [ 16 , 62 , 63 ]. A stable insect community structure with an increased number of natural enemies (predatory beetles and mites) was observed in the tea plantations intercropped with cover crops as compared to the pure tea plantation [ 64 , 65 ].…”

“…Moreover, the population of natural enemies (Araneae, coleoptera, hymenoptera) in the tea ecosystem increased [ 67 ]. Maize as an intercrop in tea plantations reduced the population of tea green leaf hoppers ( E. onukii Matsuda) and white flies ( Trialeurodes vaporariorum Westwood) [ 62 ].…”